Recently, interest in cellular technologies, particularly stem cells has increased. In the case of stem cells, the interest can be attributed to the potential of stem cells to provide new understanding into biological processes and to provide new and improved therapies for a variety of conditions.
Stem cells have the potential to develop into many different cell types in the body. Serving as a sort of repair system for the body, they can theoretically divide without limit to replenish other cells as long as the person or animal is still alive. When a stem cell divides, each new cell has the potential to either remain a stem cell or become another type of cell with a more specialized function, such as a muscle cell, a red blood cell, or a brain cell. Thus, there is high interest in developing stem cell and other cellular technologies, and as a result, an increased demand for improved culturing techniques.
Certain types of cell cultures, including many stem cells, grow into colonies. To increase growth, those culturing the cells often desire to section (i.e., to fragment, divide, or break up) the colonies into uniform or semi-uniform sub colonies of cells. Known methods for achieving sectioning often involve manual slicing of colonies using a straight edge or addition of a chemical. These methods often damage significant numbers of cells in the colonies and are not sufficiently fast for high throughput applications. Discussed herein are methods and devices for improving speed and efficacy of sectioning techniques for cell colonies and whole cultures.